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OMAHA, Neb. — Baylor Scheierman had 26 points and a season-high 16 rebounds as No. 12 Creighton men’s basketball earned an 89-75 win over short-handed and fifth-ranked Marquette on Saturday, March 2nd. The win gave Creighton multiple wins over Top 5 programs in the same season for the first time in team history.
Creighton’s seniors, which included Scheierman, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Francisco Farabello and Steven Ashworth, combined for 61 of CU’s 89 points. Trey Alexander had 18 points and a career-high 11 assists to become the first Bluejay with consecutive points/assists double-doubles since Maurice Watson Jr. in 2016.. Creighton (22-8, 13-6 BIG EAST) shot 54.1 percent from the floor and made 13-of-32 three-pointers (40.6 percent). The Jays also won the rebound battle 35-28, won the bench points battle 16-6, and outscored MU 11-4 in fast break points.
Marquette (22-7, 13-5 BIG EAST) was led by 23 points from Kam Jones and 21 by David Joplin. The Golden Eagles played without reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year Tyler Kolek (oblique) as well as star forward Oso Ighodoro (illness). The Golden Eagles shot 46.9 percent from the field, 31.0 percent from deep and made 6-of-10 foul shots.
The game featured nine lead changes in the first seven minutes before a Mason Miller three-pointer gave CU an 18-16 lead, and the Jays would not trail the rest of the afternoon.. A pair of three-pointers by Alexander 29 seconds apart moved the CU margin to 28-21 and forced a timeout by the visitors. The Jays led 42-34 before the Golden Eagles outscored CU 6-0 in the final two minutes of the half to whittle the CU lead down to 42-40 at the intermission.
After MU tied the score at 44-all on a thunderous dunk by Joplin with 17:23 to play, CU began to pull away with a 16-6 run that featured points from four different men as the lead reached double-figures (60-50) for the first time. The Golden Eagles weren’t done, rallying within one at 63-62 with 8:58 left on a three-ball by Jones, before CU made its final push. A dunk by Kalkbrenner and two free throws by Scheierman put CU up 67-62, starting a stretch where 26 straight Bluejay points were scored by its senior class. Highlighting that run was a four-possession stretch with one trifecta from Farabello and three from Scheierman that put the Jays ahead 81-69 with just over two minutes remaining.
Moments after Kalkbrenner’s fifth and final block of the day, Creighton called timeout as all four seniors who played, as well as junior guard Alexander, checked out for one last time at home in 2023-24.
Creighton closes the regular-season next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Central when it visits Villanova in a game that will be nationally-televised on FOX.
NOTES: Creighton honored its 1973-74 team at halftime. That team reached the Sweet 16 and also picked up a win over a Top 10 Marquette team … Creighton is the first BIG EAST team with multiple Top 5 wins in a two-week stretch since St. john’s in February of 2018 … Creighton clinched a top-three seed in the 2024 BIG EAST Tournament … Creighton has now picked up three or more Top 25 wins in seven of the last eight seasons after never doing it even once prior to that … Creighton finished the season 14-2 at home, with the two losses coming by a combined three points … Creighton has won its final home game in 26 of the last 29 regular-seasons … Creighton has won 22 games or more in five straight seasons now … Ryan Kalkbrenner grabbed four offensive rebounds, giving him 157 in his career and passing Doug McDermott’s CHI Health Center Omaha record of 155 … Kalkbrenner also had five blocks to break his own CHI Health Center Omaha single-season record with 41 … Ryan Kalkbrenner joined Baylor Scheierman and Trey Alexander over 500 points this season. They’re just the second Bluejay trio to ever do that in the same year, joining Ray Yost, Eddie Cole and Elton Tuttle in 1953-54 … Trey Alexander passed Bob Gibson and now ranks 25th in Creighton history with 1,288 career points … The win was Creighton’s 14th Top 10 win under Greg McDermott, after CU had just five total before his arrival … Creighton is now 38-52 against Top 25 teams under Greg McDermott, who owns 30 more Top 25 wins than any other CU coach … Creighton improved to 5-3 all-time in games among Top 12 teams, and 3-1 at home …Creighton has trailed for a total of 26:23 in its past nine Senior Day games … No. 5 Marquette was Creighton’s first ranked team its hosted on Senior Day since beating No. 8 Seton Hall in 2020 … Baylor Scheierman has made a three-pointer in 18 straight games and scored 10 or more points in 15 games in a row … Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 10 or more points in 17 straight games and eight or more points in 53 consecutive contests … Since 2003, the only player besides Baylor Scheierman (twice) with a double-double on a Senior Day in which they were honored came in 2016, when Geoffrey Groselle did it … Creighton improved to 5-0 on FOX this season.
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